Wife of Egyptian detainee tells how she was threatened with rape by interrogators in front of her husband

Video clip posted on YouTube on June 22, 2014

This appears to be a press conference in which the wife of detainee Hasan Anwar tells the story of her torture by security agents in front of her own husband.

Text of video clip:

He said to me: “Look behind you.” Because I’d been beaten so badly I could not see. He asked: “Who is this?” I said: “My husband.” He said: “Look what he has done to you.” I said: “He has not done anything to me. You are the one who brought me here and beat me but he has done nothing. You are punishing us.”

He said to me: “You say I’m punishing you?” He took me into a room, the room he [her husband] was in. They tried to rape me. My husband said: “Enough, enough, let her go.” He [police officer] was telling someone to undress me. My husband said: “Let her go, let her go, I’ll talk but get her out of here.”

The officer replied: “No, you talk first and then we take her out of here.” He said to him: “I swear I’ll talk just take her out of here.”

I was blindfolded before I was brought into this room. The officer started removing my veil and niqab [face cover] and as a result the blindfold dropped. When they brought me into the room they started to do all this, and I was screaming loudly and I kept saying “what you’re doing is haram.”

My husband kept telling them to tell him what they want and he’d say it but don’t do this. He said: “Take her out of here and I’ll talk. What are the charges you want me to admit to? I’ll confess but let her go.” So they took me out.

After they did all these things and despite everything they did they brought him down to the floor. They [the police officers] said: “If he does not talk bring her back.” My husband said to him: “Tell me what is it you want me to confess to. I’ll say whatever you want me to say so that you let her go.” He said to him: “I’m telling you that you will have to talk, you will have to talk. Or else…” he said to a policeman “go and fetch her.” They brought me back in to the room.

When they took out of the room before, they blindfolded me and strapped my hands behind my back.

[In the room] He held me and dropped me on a chair. He said [to the policeman]: “Put her hands on the door so that we suspend her too to make him talk.” My husband said to them: “By Allah and I swear to God 100 times, if you want me to say anything I’ll say it just tell me what happened, what is it you want me to say, I don’t know, what is it?”

That’s it. I was shocked by all that which was going on. I didn’t know what was happening. They strapped my hands behind my back, blindfolded me and carried me and put on a chair, then wanted to suspend me.

I said to him: “If I am suspended… when you suspended my husband I heard him shout very loudly, I was horrified by his screaming. If you do this to me I don’t know what I shall do.”

My husband said: “Just tell me what to say and I shall say it, but let her go, please.”

He let me go and brought me out. They then started beating my husband severely as if in revenge from 10 o’clock to 12 o’clock. At the same time, they said: “Bring her back.” I went in to find my husband with everyone on him, about five people, on top of him. He was blindfolded but from the beatings his blindfold had slipped.

I was still blindfolded and my hands were tied behind my back. I was emotionally drained. He dragged me and pushed me into the room.

Note: This page was updated at 11.45 GMT on June 24, 2014 to correct translation errors in the copy and the headline.